Crowe busy preparing for release of debut album

Last year proved to be a successful year for new Burlington band, Crowe, while this year is already shaping up to be the same.

The new year already looks promising as the band has an upcoming performance in Toronto as part of Edge 102.1’s Indie Showcase as well as an upcoming release of a debut album.

In December, vocalist Tim Crowe was notified the band had been selected by Dave Bookman of 102.1 as its Indie Band of the Month.

“I guess we got enough plays on a voting website that I got a call from Bookie,” explained Crowe. “It was fantastic to hear our song on the radio then they host the event on (Tuesday) Jan. 15. It was pretty amazing to hear from (the radio station) as I grew up listening to it and hearing your song on it was pretty incredible. It was a really good feeling.”

Crowe performs the Edge 102 Indie Showcase at the Horseshoe in Toronto.

Formed a year and a half ago, Crowe consists of Stephen Sydor as guitarist, Don Reilly as drummer and Sean Dubreuil as bass guitarist, along with singer Crowe.

The quartet came together over a “love of Fuzz pedals, beer and the love of playing rock and roll.”

“We love Fuzz but we’re also big on melody,” noted Crowe. “We have a good blend. Steve and I have been playing music for a long time and the songs were writing themselves so we wanted to present them, play them for people. It got to the point we wanted to do it again so we got the right line-up.”

The band has played around the greater Toronto area, including Lee’s Palace and Horseshoe Tavern.

“Everybody wanted to play more thoughtful music, original music,” said Crowe. “With original music, you have to work everything out. There is a lot of creativity and piecing together (the song) with original music.”

Now the band is laying down its new music to release its debut album in a few months.

“We tried to keep it as raw as possible as we didn’t want to overdo it, we wanted to keep it a nice, real sound,” explained Crowe. “We tried to keep it analog, not digital.”

Crowe writes the music but every band member crafts his area.

“I come up with patchwork then it’s free rein once it gets into the guys’ hands,” he said. “I’m not dictating on how they should sound; this is about expression and I want them to be free to express.”

The expression has produced parallelism in sound and lyric, notably in a song entitled One Love, which showcases guitar partnership, said Crowe.

“One Love was inspired by the idea that everybody needs something and no matter where they look they can find it but the catch is there’s always going to be that chink in the armour.

“The song flows together and when we listened to it, there was this play off my guitar and Steve’s guitar. I tend to be more melodic, lighter and Steve is more aggressive so it was great to hear it together.”

The band hopes to finalize the self-produced album over the next couple months for release this spring.